It has already been proposed to utilise a child restraint bassinet in a vehicle, wherein the bassinet is normally lying with its base parallel to the ground, or nearly parallel to the ground, but provided with hinge means connected to the head and foot end of the bassinet, and arranged so that the bassinet will swing in a pendulum-like manner in a forward direction upon impact of the vehicle so that the mass of a child in that bassinet still bears against the base of the bassinet. However, there are certain difficulties encountered with this type of child restraint, the first of which is the tendency of the device to swing under conditions of low acceleration or minor impact only, and secondly when the head and toe ends of the bassinet extend transversely with respect to the direction of vehicle travel, the bassinet assembly occupies a large amount of seat space, for example, in the rear seating portion of a vehicle to occupy two adult seating positions.
One object of this invention is to provide means which will still enable a child to be restrained satisfactorily upon impact, for example, by bearing against the bottom wall of the bassinet, but wherein the bassinet can have the head and toe ends aligned with the direction of travel, and be unlikely to be dislodged on anything less than a threshold level of acceleration (for example, 5 g.).